Internet Learning Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2016/Winter 2017 | Page 43

instructor interactivity by encouraging
the frequency of content, increasing
social presence and engagement, and
providing frequent feedback. Too
often educators are implementing
technologies into their instruction
without an honest understanding of
how they can facilitate student learning.
Understandably, we all know
the investment in time in exploring
new pedagogies and technologies to
increase our instructional effectiveness
is immense. However, if we do not take
the time, it may have an inverse impact
on student outcomes, including satisfaction
and learning.
2 How do you feel universities are
doing with attending to developing
students’ information literacy skill
sets?
I
feel that university libraries, historically,
are doing good work in
attending to developing students’
information literacies, yet it is crucial
in this century to consider the importance
of other literacies. Information
literacies need to be taught hand in
hand with digital literacies. In the last
couple decades, we have seen a surge
in literacies that educators and employers
have identified as important. Many
times these are referred to as 21st century
literacies. They include digital, technology,
visual, and information literacies.
Social media can help build many
of these literacies. However, we need to
not only teach students how-to’s, but
we need to provide them with a greater
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understanding of how their behaviors
impact societal structures and vice versa.
In leading the digital futures planning
at my institution several years
ago, faculty expressed there was a gap
in developing students’ digital literacy
skills. In our work, we discovered two
different aspects of digital literacy. One
aspect focuses on the idea that students
needed to know how to use technology
and associated digital tools to find, evaluate,
share, and create information, and
the other aspect focuses on the need for
our students to be critical consumers of
these same tools.
With the quick-moving development
of new technologies every day
that are open and free to individuals, it
is important for students to understand
the implications of their use in their
own lives and on society as a whole.
Students chose to use certain hardware
and software or apps. They now have to
consider the security, digital identity,
behavioral data and analytics, information
sharing and creation, consumerism,
political activism, and many more
aspects. These issues are beyond the
traditional thought of teaching students
how to use technology to perform tasks,
such as locating reliable information
or communicating with the instructor.
I would argue that it is important that
these skill sets are implemented across
the curriculum, including the incorporation
of critical and postmodern theoretical
approaches around information
and technology. In my courses, I work
to ensure that learning objectives, assessments,
and activities consider the
development of these literacies among
undergraduate students.